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SiTime Corporation announced it has expanded its global footprint to support its rapid growth with the opening of a new Center of Excellence in Michigan.

“SiTime’s mission is to solve the most difficult timing challenges for our customers,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. “To fulfil our mission, SiTime’s strategy is to deliver leading-edge solutions by employing the best talent in communities that offer the highest quality of life. Our Michigan Center is near many world-class universities. The rich talent pool in the region, especially in engineering, will help us accelerate our product development. Additionally, Michigan is at the forefront of connected and autonomous vehicle innovation, which is of strategic importance to SiTime. Our proximity and collaborative cooperation with the industry will extend our leadership in automotive timing solutions. We look forward to SiTime Michigan becoming a key contributor to our success.”

By combining unique MEMS and analog technology with a fabless semiconductor model and significant knowhow, SiTime has transformed the timing industry over the past decade. Today, SiTime sets the benchmark in performance, reliability, size, and flexibility, and is the preferred timing supplier for high-performance electronics. SiTime has cumulatively shipped 1 billion units since 2005 and has 90% share of the MEMS timing market. To support this rapid global growth and fuel innovation, SiTime has a significant presence worldwide, including China, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

In Michigan, to assist with office space location, new talent acquisition, and business support services, SiTime collaborated with Ann Arbor SPARK, a non-profit economic development organization.

“The Ann Arbor region is a unique place where business intersects with advanced research, out-of-the-box thinkers, abundant financial resources, vibrant economic development and an immense talent pool,” said Paul Krutko, president/CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK. “We are thrilled to work with SiTime to help them get settled and to find the talent that will fuel their continued growth, while further energizing our technology sector.”

3D-Micromac AG, a supplier of laser micromachining and roll-to-roll laser systems for the photovoltaic, medical device and electronics markets, today announced it has received an order for the company’s new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off (LLO) system from dpiX, a leading manufacturer of high-resolution digital sensors. The microMIRA system will be shipped to dpiX’s fab in Colorado Springs, Colo., where it will provide laser lift-off processing from Gen 4.5 glass substrates used in manufacturing X-ray sensors for medical, industrial and military applications.

The new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off system from 3D-Micromac provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds.

The new microMIRA excimer laser lift-off system from 3D-Micromac provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds.

3D-Micromac’s new microMIRA laser lift-off system provides highly uniform, force-free lift-off of flexible layers on large surface areas and at high speeds (up to 500 wafers/hour and up to 200 sheets/hour on Gen 6 substrates depending on the application). The system is built on a highly customizable platform that can incorporate different laser sources, wavelengths and beam paths to meet each customer’s unique requirements.

The microMIRA system can be used for a variety of applications, such as device lift-off from glass and sapphire substrates in semiconductor manufacturing as well as organic light emitting diode (OLED) and microLED display manufacturing. Additional applications include laser annealing and crystallization for surface modification, including printed electronics such as near-field communication (NFC) sensors and tags.

“In evaluating various laser approaches for our manufacturing needs, 3D-Micromac’s microMIRA laser lift-off system provided the best possible combination of cost of ownership, throughput and uniformity results,” stated Frank Caris, President and CEO of dpiX. “We look forward to installing this system in our production fab for use in manufacturing our latest silicon-based X-ray sensor arrays.”

In addition to its high configurability, speed and uniformity, 3D-Micromac’s microMIRA laser lift-off system provides many other benefits, including:

  • Force-free and extremely selective laser processing
  • No damage due to thermo-mechanical effects
  • Low production costs, including the ability to recycle/reuse carrier substrates
  • Elimination of costly and polluting wet chemical processes
  • Easy integration of adjacent manufacturing steps for greater fab productivity

“Our new microMIRA laser lift-off system takes advantage of the extensive process and applications knowledge we have built up from the more than 400 3D-Micromac laser systems installed and in use worldwide to date, including dozens of excimer laser systems used for display and microelectronics manufacturing,” stated Uwe Wagner, 3D-Micromac’s chief technology officer. “We look forward to closer engagement with dpiX to explore new opportunities and applications that can benefit from our laser products, processes and expertise.”

Molex, a global manufacturer of electronic solutions, announced today the acquisition of BittWare, Inc., a global provider of computing systems featuring field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) deployed in data center compute and network packet processing applications.

“Among the foremost FPGA computing platform developers, BittWare brings an impressive breadth of board-level computing technologies, integrated systems and software expertise,” said Tim Ruff, senior vice president of Molex.

According to Mark Gilliam, president of Interconnect Systems International, a Molex company, “The acquisition expands on the capabilities of Molex and its subsidiary Nallatech to address the rising demand for FPGA-based high-performance compute and network processing solutions.”

Headquartered in Concord, NH, BittWare provides solutions based on FPGA technology from Intel (formerly Altera) and Xilinx. Many of the world’s leading companies use BittWare FPGA solutions to provide the processing power for demanding applications in compute and data center, military and aerospace, government, instrumentation and test, financial services, broadcast and video.

“FPGA-based platforms have become a strategically important driver of machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, network acceleration, IoT, and other megatrends. As a Molex subsidiary, now working with Nallatech, I believe we will have the critical mass to bring new resources, better processes, and economies of scale to our valued customers and this rapidly growing industry as a whole,” said Jeff Milrod, president and CEO of BittWare.

BittWare commercial products turn the latest FPGA device features into reliable board-level solutions, suitable for both development and deployment in integrated servers. The company serves original equipment manufacture (OEM) customers, who value the decades of engineering experience BittWare brings to designing custom solutions and manufacturing them at scale with partners such as Benchmark Electronics. BittWare products are supported with extensive tools, FPGA IP, and in-house technical support staff.

Philpott Ball & Werner, LLC acted as BittWare’s financial advisor. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

For more information about Molex BittWare FPGA solutions, please visit www.molex.com.

Crossbar, Inc. announced an agreement with Microsemi Corporation, the largest U.S. commercial supplier of military and aerospace semiconductors, in which Microsemi will license Crossbar’s ReRAM core intellectual property. As part of the agreement, Microsemi and Crossbar will collaborate in the research, development and application of Crossbar’s proprietary ReRAM technology in next generation products from Microsemi that integrate Crossbar’s embedded ReRAM with Microsemi products manufactured at the 1x nm process node.

“We are pleased to have Microsemi in our growing list of licensees,” said George Minassian, CEO of Crossbar. “Together, we can bring unique integration of ReRAM into highly integrated, advanced node semiconductor solutions for a wide range of high-performance, low-power solutions.”

The unique nanofilament technology of Crossbar ReRAM is built upon standard CMOS processes and is fully scalable to below 10nm without impacting performance. Highly integrated semiconductor solutions with unique embedded memory architectures can be built to offer a highly secure, low-power platform with fast access times for advanced applications including edge computing, communications infrastructure, artificial intelligence, Industrial IoT and automotive.

“We are very pleased with the Crossbar license as their unique and highly scalable ReRAM technology allows us to plan power-efficient, high performance products across a multi-generation roadmap,” said Jim Aralis, Microsemi CTO. “This technology collaboration with Crossbar furthers our commitment to becoming the leading supplier of semiconductor solutions differentiated by performance, reliability, security and power while delivering truly innovative solutions.”

Sciaky, Inc., a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries, Inc. (PSI) and provider of metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, announced today that it has received an order for multiple Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM®) systems to bolster the nation’s defense and power generation programs. Details of the project are confidential.

A Sciaky EBAM 110 System. (PRNewsfoto/Sciaky, Inc.)

A Sciaky EBAM 110 System. (PRNewsfoto/Sciaky, Inc.)

“Sciaky has a long history of providing innovative solutions to America’s military and power generation initiatives,” said Scott Phillips, President and CEO of Sciaky, Inc. “Our EBAM process is the only industrial-grade metal 3D printing technology to produce large-scale parts for land, sea, air, and space applications.”

As the most widely scalable metal additive manufacturing solution in the industry (in terms of work envelope), Sciaky’s EBAM systems can produce parts ranging from 8 inches (203 mm) to 19 feet (5.79 meters) in length. EBAM is also the fastest deposition process in the metal additive manufacturing market, with gross deposition rates ranging from seven to 25 lbs. (3.18 to 11.34 kg) of metal per hour. EBAM brings quality and control together with IRISS® – the Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System, which is the only real-time adaptive control system in the metal 3D printing market that can sense and digitally self-adjust metal deposition with precision and repeatability. This innovative closed-loop control is the primary reason that Sciaky’s EBAM 3D printing process delivers consistent part geometry, mechanical properties, microstructure, and metal chemistry, from the first part to the last.

Presto Engineering Inc. today announced that it has joined GLOBALSOLUTIONS, GF’s ecosystem of partners that provides services from conception to production. As an ecosystem partner, Presto will provide its post-silicon engineering and production turnkey solutions based upon GF’s technologies and services for customers across the globe.

The partnership will focus on specialized testing and packaging, leveraging Presto’s extensive mixed signal, radio frequency (RF) and analog test expertise to deliver system-level differentiation in semiconductors for GF’s advanced process technologies. Presto’s services — including package development, test solutions implementation and production, qualification and supply chain management — allow customers to reduce development time and risks through customizing industry-standard capabilities, choosing from a number of design platforms at GF. For higher-volume applications, customers can work with Presto to develop and source fully custom system-on-chips (SoCs).

“We are very pleased to join GLOBALSOLUTIONS Ecosystem as a Worldwide ASIC Partner,” said Michel Villemain, CEO of Presto Engineering. “Together, we will provide an innovative, design-to-production implementation that will help customers deliver customized silicon solutions that satisfy increasing market needs for high performance and low power technologies. We believe that GF customers will benefit from our expertise in the test and development of solutions for IoT, analog, mixed signal, RF and secured applications.”

“Presto is a recognized expert in the industrialisation of ASIC solutions throughout the world,” said Jai Durgam, vice president of design enablement at GF. “Together, our customers will benefit from the combination of Presto’s test expertise and in-house resources and our proven silicon process technologies to enable a new level of user experience for next-generation chip designs for Internet of Things (IoT) and automotive applications.”

Martin Kingdon, Presto’s VP of Sales, added, “We are able to provide significant added value to our customers, not only through handling the technical support and sourcing of the wafers, but also by providing an end-to-end solution including testing, packaging and through to the logistics of warehousing and shipping the final parts. There are so many stages in the complex semiconductor supply chain that it is easy for a newcomer to miss vital steps, which can delay a product timeline and add to the costs. Our experience of doing this whole process so many times means that we know exactly how do the whole process efficiently and cost effectively.”

Launched more than five years, GF’s GLOBALSOLUTIONS provides chip designers with experienced design enablement and turnkey services from chip design, methodology, test and packaging that enable customers to bring today’s complex integrated circuits to market. The ecosystem combines the company’s internal resources with a broad spectrum of partners to efficiently enable the fastest time-to-volume for foundry customers.

Reaching their highest recorded quarterly level ever, worldwide silicon wafer area shipments jumped to 3,084 million square inches during the first quarter 2018, a 3.6 percent increase over fourth quarter 2017 area shipments of 2,977 million square inches and a 7.9 percent rise over first quarter 2017 shipments, according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.

“Global silicon wafer shipment volumes started the year at historic levels,” said Neil Weaver, chairman SEMI SMG and Director, Product Development and Applications Engineering of Shin-Etsu Handotai America. “As a result, silicon shipments, like device shipments, are positioned to be strong this year.”

Silicon* Area Shipment Trends

Millions of Square Inches
1Q 2017
2Q 2017
3Q 2017
4Q 2017
1Q 2018
Total
2,858
2,978
2,997
2,977
3,084

Source: SEMI, May 2018

*Semiconductor applications only

Silicon wafers are the fundamental building material for semiconductors, which, in turn, are vital components of virtually all electronics goods, including computers, telecommunications products, and consumer electronics. The highly engineered thin round disks are produced in various diameters (from one inch to 12 inches) and serve as the substrate material on which most semiconductor devices or “chips” are fabricated.

All data cited in this release includes polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers and epitaxial silicon wafers, as well as non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to end users.

The Silicon Manufacturers Group acts as an independent special interest group within the SEMI structure and is open to SEMI members involved in manufacturing polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon or silicon wafers (e.g., as cut, polished, epi, etc.). The purpose of the group is to facilitate collective efforts on issues related to the silicon industry including the development of market information and statistics about the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.

 

ORS Labs, Inc., the parent company of Oneida Research Services, Inc. (ORS), announces the acquisition of Silicon Cert Laboratories in Reading, Pennsylvania. Silicon Cert Laboratories is an internationally recognized leader in environmental and mechanical testing and qualification of products and components for the telecommunications, defense, automotive, aerospace and medical-device industries. Silicon Cert Laboratories testing services include mechanical shock, vibration, drop testing and environmental exposure such as temperature and humidity cycling to evaluate the impact of changing environmental conditions on products.

“The acquisition of Silicon Cert Laboratories substantially increases the level of expertise and technology that ORS can offer when evaluating and qualifying products and components for mission-critical applications in the industries we serve,” said Daniel Rossiter, Senior Vice President of Oneida Research Services, Inc. “We are thrilled to be working together and look forward to many years of growth.”

John Schmoyer, Client Services Manager at Silicon Cert stated “Oneida and Silicon Cert have had a friendly cooperative relationship for over twelve (12) years. This is a win-win relationship for both Silicon Cert Laboratories and Oneida Research.”

About Silicon Cert Laboratories: Based in Reading, PA, Silicon Cert Laboratories was founded in 1998 by a group of former Bell Labs, AT&T Microelectronics and Lucent Technologies engineers with an extensive background in integrated circuit and optoelectronic component design, manufacturing and testing. The company achieved ISO certification in 2000 and is currently certified to ISO 9001:2008 through DNV-GL. In 2007, the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio approved Silicon Cert for multiple MIL-STD- 883 test methods. In 2009, the company was accredited by A2LA to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 to perform a wide variety of reliability tests. https://www.siliconcert.com

About ORS: Oneida Research Services, Inc. has testing facilities in Whitesboro, New York and Denver, Colorado. Both locations are accredited to ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D and approved by the Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio for several test methods per Mil Std. 883 and Mil Std. 750. Throughout its 40 years, ORS has established strong working relationships with experts in the field of applied analytical chemistry, gas analysis, destructive physical analysis, hermeticity testing and organic mass spectrometry. ORS also has an affiliate in Sophia Antipolis, France. https://www.orslabs.com

ON Semiconductor Corporation announced the expansion of their manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York. The site develops and manufactures image sensor devices for commercial, industrial and professional imaging applications, including machine vision, surveillance, traffic monitoring, medical and scientific imaging, and photography.

ON Semiconductor is a global company with manufacturing facilities around the world – the end-to-end manufacturing strategy at the Rochester location enables success in these specialized markets. Located on a 4.2-acre site with over 260,000 square feet of building space, the expanded facility supports all four disciplines of the semiconductor business, wafer fab, wafer probe, assembly, and test and packaging operations for specialized high-performance CCD and CMOS image sensors.

“Not only is the screen on your smart phone or TV likely inspected with image sensors manufactured at the Lake Avenue site, but image sensors manufactured at this facility are also on the surface of Mars, orbiting Jupiter and the Moon, and used in commercial satellites that monitor the Earth’s surface,” said Michael Miller, general manager and director of operations at ON Semiconductor. “This expansion would have not been possible without the support and grant from Empire State Development and their willingness to partner with us. We owe them a debt of gratitude, thank you Governor Cuomo.”

“Manufacturing is a core competency for ON Semiconductor and the majority of ON Semiconductor’s manufacturing operations are done internally through the company’s industry leading cost structure,” said Bill Schromm, executive vice president and chief operating officer. “This expansion is important to our company, as it significantly increases our assembly capacity at the ON Semiconductor Rochester location.”

“Rochester is known for its innovations in digital imaging, including the design and development of state-of-the art image sensors over the past decades. Assembly and test has always been a key part of the equation, and as the resolution and complexity of the sensors continues to increase, these operations have become critical,” said Herb Erhardt, general manager, Industrial Solutions Division. “The increased level of capability and capacity enabled by this expansion is our answer to meeting these critical market needs, and the fact that we are doing it here in Rochester speaks to the capabilities of the teams we build here.”

The expansion is due in part to partnerships with local and state officials, including the Mayor and County Executive, Governor’s office and state officials, as well as members of Congress, all recognizing the opportunity to grow the local economy and leverage the unique advantages that Rochester can bring.

Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Duffy said, “Rochester Chamber congratulates member ON Semiconductor on the opening of its new assembly and test operation. With its global customer base, ON Semiconductor is a terrific example of the Rochester and Finger Lakes region’s emerging high-tech economy. Rochester Chamber stands ready to assist ON Semiconductor in any way that it can to help the company along on its path of growth and prosperity.”

“High-tech companies like ON Semiconductor recognize the highly skilled workforce that can be tapped into in the Finger Lakes,” said Howard Zemsky, president, CEO and commissioner at Empire State Development. “ON Semiconductor’s Eastman Business Park expansion is yet another great addition to the innovation ecosystem being established in the region.”

“Businesses like ON Semiconductor are bolstering the reputation of Rochester as a target area for high-tech investment,” said Lieutenant Governor of New York Kathy Hochul. “There is an enthusiasm throughout the City and the region that is contagious. Our economic investments have built new buildings and provided new job opportunities for residents of the Finger Lakes region. Most importantly, the Finger Lakes Forward strategy has brought back hope. I thank ON Semiconductor for their investment and continuing to believe in the Rochester community.”

The site celebrated the grand opening of the ON Semiconductor Assembly and Test facility with a ribbon-cutting, Wednesday May 9, 2018 at 11 a.m. WHAM-TV news anchor Ginny Ryan presided as the master of ceremonies for the event. Special guests included: Lt Governor Kathy Hochul, Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development, Robert Duffy, president and CEO of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Rochester City Mayor Lovely Warren, Vincent Esposito, Regional Director – Finger Lakes – Rochester Region Empire State Development and Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo.

ON Semiconductor is focused on energy efficient innovations in an effort to reduce global energy use. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of over 80,000 energy efficient power management, analog, sensors, logic, timing, connectivity, discrete, SoC and custom devices utilized in, computing, consumer, industrial, medical and military/aerospace applications. The company operates a network of manufacturing facilities, sales offices and design centers which are located in key markets throughout North America, Europe and in the Asia Pacific region.

Adesto Technologies, a provider of innovative application-specific semiconductors for the IoT era, announced it has acquired Dublin-based S3 Semiconductors, a global supplier of mixed-signal and RF application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and an extensive library of design IP. The transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, with an additional earn-out provision based on certain milestones to the end of calendar year 2019.

Highlights of expected benefits of the transaction include:

  • Expands Adesto’s portfolio of products and technologies with analog, mixed-signal, and RF solutions and IP
  • Accelerates revenue and customer growth in communications and industrial IoT with immediate cross-selling opportunities and nominal customer overlap
  • Increases dollar content potential for IoT edge nodes
  • S3 Semiconductors is a highly-valued design partner of Arm Holdings
  • Adds high-value embedded systems expertise and mixed-signal engineering team
  • Immediately accretive to gross margin and adjusted EBITDA

“Building on our leadership position in IoT memories, today we take a meaningful step in becoming a supplier of a broad range of innovative semiconductor products and solutions for the IoT markets,” said Narbeh Derhacobian, CEO of Adesto. “S3 Semiconductors has a proven track record of designing and delivering differentiated ASIC products, and an extensive IP portfolio developed by a talented team of design engineers over many years. Through this acquisition, we are significantly expanding our customer base and SAM with a broader product portfolio and comprehensive systems expertise to deliver a complete solution to our customers.”

Dermot Barry, vice president and general manager of S3 Semiconductors, commented, “Over the years, S3 Semiconductors has built a first-class team that is focused on creating complex, high-quality custom products. Joining forces with Adesto gives us access to a broader sales channel with a diversified group of top-tier customers who will benefit from our ability to deliver highly optimized ASICs with unrivaled cost economies. Moreover, the combined company is well-positioned to gain increasing traction in IoT to drive toward the next phase of innovation and growth.”

S3 Semiconductors will become a business unit of Adesto and will continue to operate under its current operating model across existing global sites, including its four design centers in Dublin, Cork, Prague and Lisbon.

Adesto financed the transaction with existing cash and a new credit facility in the amount of $35 million. Concurrent with the close of the new credit facility, Adesto terminated its former credit facility with Western Alliance Bank, which included paying off an outstanding term loan with a principal amount owed of $12 million.

ROTH Capital is serving as financial advisor and placement agent to Adesto, and Menalto Advisors is serving as financial advisor to S3 Group.